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SQZ Biotech's innovative CellSqueeze platform enables virtually any material to enter into almost any cell type, including primary human-derived cells, with unprecedented efficiency through a gentle squeeze. (Graphic: Business Wire)

SQZ Biotech's innovative CellSqueeze platform enables virtually any material to enter into almost any cell type, including primary human-derived cells, with unprecedented efficiency through a gentle squeeze. (Graphic: Business Wire)

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SQZ
Biotech has been awarded a $100,000 grand prize in MassChallenge’s
2014 startup competition at the accelerator's annual awards ceremony.
The Company was founded to commercialize CellSqueeze, an innovative
platform that enables virtually any material to enter a cell with
unprecedented efficiency through a gentle squeeze. This capability has
many applications in biomedical research and drug development, including
studying disease mechanisms, identifying novel drugs and engineering
cell function for therapeutic use. The Company was selected from a pool
of Top 26 Startups announced earlier in October, which were chosen from
1,650 applicants from all over the world. MassChallenge
is the world’s largest startup accelerator and first to support
high-impact, early-stage entrepreneurs with no strings attached.

In addition, Boeing and the Center for the Advancement of Science in
Space, or CASIS, awarded SQZ Biotech the CASIS-Boeing Prize for
Technology in Space, a more than $200,000 prize, and will facilitate the
use of SQZ Biotech's CellSqueeze technology on the International Space
Station. SQZ Biotech’s scientists, led by Harrison Bralower, Vice
President of Engineering, will study CellSqueeze in the unique
microgravity environment offered by the station. Receiving a
MassChallenge grand prize and the CASIS-Boeing award, SQZ Biotech has
won the largest total prize in the accelerator's five year history.

“We are thrilled that MassChallenge, CASIS and Boeing have recognized us
as a top startup and that CellSqueeze will be studied on the
International Space Station. Our deceptively simple new way to control
cell behavior offers exciting promise for studies of basic cell biology
as well as enabling cell-based therapies previously only envisioned,”
said Agustin Lopez Marquez, CEO of SQZ Biotech. “Our strategy is to work
with strategic partners to expand high-impact applications of
CellSqueeze. A few examples include regenerating damaged tissue,
training the immune system to fight cancer, creating induced pluripotent
stem cells as disease models, understanding disease mechanisms and
validating drug candidates for clinical trials, all of which are areas
of medical need and high scientific relevance.”

SQZ Biotech was founded in 2013 to commercialize CellSqueeze technology,
which was discovered by Dr. Armon Sharei in the labs of Dr. Klavs
Jensen, Department Head, Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical
Engineering, and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Dr.
Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, both at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). The Company has raised over $1 million in
seed funding and is further supported by grants and revenue from the
Company’s CellSqueeze academic services program. SQZ Biotech has
received an exclusive, worldwide license to CellSqueeze from MIT for any
application. Investors in SQZ Biotech include the founders, MIT Angels,
Walnut Angels, Maine Angels and other private individuals. SQZ Biotech’s
board members include Dr. Sharei (chair), Dr. Jensen, Dr. Langer and
Johnathan Fleming, Managing Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners and
Senior Lecturer in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship at
the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Many diseases and disorders result from dysfunction at the cellular
level; however, studying them has proven challenging as it is currently
difficult to understand and manipulate cells’ internal biological
mechanisms. SQZ Biotech’s CellSqueeze platform is a microfluidic chip
that enables the delivery of virtually any material into almost any cell
type, including primary human-derived cells, in order to address
challenges with traditional intracellular delivery technologies. SQZ
Biotech’s chips contain 75 parallel fluidic channels, each of which has
at least one region where the channel diameter is smaller than the
diameter of a cell. Cells flowing through these channels experience a
“squeeze” as they travel through the narrow point. The mechanical stress
opens temporary holes in the cell membrane, exposing the cytoplasm,
which allows the cell to take up molecules in the surrounding
environment. Cells repair themselves shortly thereafter. CellSqueeze
technology has been published in several peer-reviewed publications,
including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
for its demonstrated potential in applications ranging from single
molecule imaging to cell reprogramming. Patent applications describing
the technology have been filed in over 20 countries.

“Current methods of intracellular delivery do not work well for many
cell types and materials. For example, chemical and viral delivery
methods can be efficient but are often highly toxic or limited to
nucleic acid cargo. Electroporation might work for a larger variety of
cells but performs poorly for nanoparticles and uncharged proteins.
Moreover it has significant toxicity effects,” said Armon Sharei, Ph.D.,
chairman of SQZ Biotech’s board of directors and co-inventor of
CellSqueeze technology. “With CellSqueeze, we can eliminate these
challenges while improving delivery of the target material into cells
with demonstrated 10 to 100 times higher efficiency than competing
technologies.”

About SQZ Biotech

SQZ Biotech is commercializing the CellSqueeze platform, which enables
virtually any material to enter almost any cell of interest with a
gentle squeeze. Through internal research programs and external
partnerships, we are leading a revolution in scientists’ approach to
disease research and clinical therapies. Our development programs are
focused on next-generation drug discovery and target validation
technologies that capitalize on our capabilities to enable more
effective identification/development of therapeutic candidates, as well
as adoptive cell therapies based on ex vivo engineering of
patient-derived cells. More information is available at www.sqzbiotech.com.